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'He stamped on my head because I held on to his leg. It was my own fault'

By Online Editors
England's Joe Marler has history with Argentina

Joe Marler insists England will match the passion of Argentina as he reflects on the incident that produced two cards when he last faced the Pumas.

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Eddie Jones’ men continue their World Cup quest on Saturday aiming to secure the triumph that could guarantee their passage into the quarter-final where they are likely to meet Australia.

Marler’s most recent outing against Argentina was staged at Twickenham three years ago when he was the victim of a stamp by replacement prop Enrique Pieretto Heiland.

Heiland was shown a red card and subsequently banned for seven weeks, but Marler admits his own role in the incident that resulted in him being sin-binned.

“Argentina are very passionate. I wouldn’t say they are niggly, they are just an extremely passionate nation and I guess so are we, so it gets a bit heated like that,” Marler said.

“He (Heiland) stamped on my head because I held on to his leg. It was my own fault. But you can’t stamp on people any more. And that was the right call. It was also the right call for me to get yellowed.”

Marler has acted as England’s senior loosehead in the absence of Mako Vunipola, who made an aborted comeback from a hamstring injury during the warm-up Tests and has only just recovered.

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The number one jersey is hotly contested with Marler and Vunipola taken to Japan alongside Ellis Genge, the rampaging young Leicester forward nicknamed “Baby Rhino”.

“There are three guys going for two shirts, so that doesn’t work. It’s great to have Mako back and he’s been in training for the last couple of weeks anyway,” Marler said.

“He’s back fully fit and he brings world-class experience and talent into that role. So….I’ve enjoyed my time!

“I’m determined to give as much as I can to this group to help us win the game on Saturday.”

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Eddie Jones on Thursday names his team for the first of two pivotal Pool C encounters – France follow Argentina seven days later – and Vunipola is sure to be present in some capacity.

“Mako needs to be the best version of himself and we know what he is capable of,” scrum coach Neal Hatley said.

“He is a 50-cap player and we know what he brings as a ball carrier and the influence he has defensively on the team.

“But Joe Marler and Ellis Genge have been going exceptionally well and we want that competition within the team to create pressure on the players to work harder and produce more.

“What we produce on the weekend will be a product of what we do in training and Mako is going to have to work hard.”

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Nickers 5 hours ago
All Blacks sabbaticals ‘damage Super Rugby Pacific when it is fighting for survival’

Sabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.

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